The cast of ‘The Fantastic Four’ brought more than just talent to the movie © 2025 20th Century … More
MARVEL STUDIOS
Few superhero teams are as quintessentially American as the Fantastic Four. Created in 1961 by New Yorkers Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the super-human space-travelers were born in the United States and live in Manhattan’s Baxter Building which has been replicated on the silver screen in this month’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The stars are all accomplished actors and half of them also have another helpful attribute.
The Fantastic Four is the 37th instalment in Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and is a return to the genre movies that made the series so successful as this report explained.
Styled like a sixties drama, the film is set in a futuristic version of the period from a parallel universe. Classic cars soar through the sky and New York is filled with mid-century modern structures which look like the TWA Flight Center at JFK and LAX’s alien-like Theme Building.
No stone is left unturned and the sixties setting is conveyed through everything from decor and clothing right down to retro advertising banners for brands which were popular at the time such as mixer drink Canada Dry. It even includes a send-up of a sixties variety show and artificially grainy news footage telling the story of how different countries respond to the Fantastic Four’s plans to protect them from the impending arrival of the planet-devouring villain Galactus.
The American broadcasts carry the 1960s logo for the Disney-owned ABC network and are accompanied by a stirring score from Academy Award winner Michael Giacchino which sounds as synonymous with the sixties as the Jaws theme is with sharks. It’s not just Oscar-worthy but, combined with the set design, it creates a wonderfully convincing atmosphere. So much so that the towering baddie Galactus seems to be a living and breathing part of it and you soon forget that he is computer generated. Indeed, he has more charisma than some of the characters in other Marvel movies played by live actors.
‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ takes place in an alternate version of the 1960s © 2025 20th … More
MARVEL STUDIOS
It all contributes to making The Fantastic Four one of the most authentic superhero movies of all time but it would all be for naught if it wasn’t for powerful performances from the stars. Three members of the quartet are meant to be family and the little quips, smirks and touches between them make this seem believable.
That dynamic and the convincing setting is all the more important in light of the heroes’ fantastical powers. Mandalorian star Pedro Pascal plays the team’s leader Reed Richards who can stretch his body like elastic. His wife Sue is nicknamed the Invisible Woman after her ability to make herself disappear. She is played by Mission: Impossible’s Vanessa Kirby whilst Joseph Quinn from Stranger Things stars as her on-screen brother in the Fantastic Four. He can cover himself in flames earning him the name of the Human Torch with the rock-like Thing rounding out the team.
In addition to looking visually spectacular, the setting seems perfectly-suited to its protagonists. The sixties were dominated by star-gazing which is a fundamental theme in the film as the heroes get their powers by being pelted with celestial rays on a mission to space. A good deal of the movie is set there and almost all of the rest of it takes place in New York even though it was actually filmed at Pinewood Studios just outside London, England. There was good reason for this.
Studios filming in the U.K. benefit from the government’s Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit which gives them a cash reimbursement of up to 25.5% of the money they spend in the country. It comes with a catch.
To qualify for the reimbursement at least 10% of the core costs of the production need to relate to activities in the U.K. and in order to demonstrate this to the government, studios usually set up a separate Film Production Company (FPC) there for each picture. This lifts the curtain on precisely how much it costs to make movies which is a closely-guarded secret in the United States as studios tend to combine their spending on individual pictures in their overall expenses and don’t itemize the budgets of each one.
In contrast, each FPC in the U.K. has to file annual financial statements and they shine a spotlight on the world of film costs. It takes a bit of detective work to get to the bottom of them.
The FPCs usually have code names so that they don’t raise attention with fans when filing permits to film on location. Tallying the code names with the productions they are responsible for requires deep industry knowledge which my colleague and I have built up over nearly 15 years of reporting. We are the only journalists worldwide who specialize in covering the financial statements of U.K. film production companies for national media and we have reported on them for more than 10 leading titles including The Times of London, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent and the London Evening Standard.
Once the code names have been correctly tallied with the film, the financial statements of the relevant FPC can be consulted to reveal how much the movie cost to make. That’s because the terms of the reimbursement state that each FPC must be “responsible for pre-production, principal photography/shooting and post-production of the film; and for delivery of the completed film.” In summary, the FPC’s financial statements have to show the production’s entire costs, not just those incurred in the U.K. Studios aren’t allowed to hide costs in other companies as the terms also state “there can only be one FPC in relation to a film.”
The Disney subsidiary behind The Fantastic Four is called Solve Everything Productions UK in a nod to the team’s plan to stop Galactus. As with all U.K. companies, its financial statements are released in stages long after the period they relate to. This starts during pre-production and continues long after the premiere to give the production team time to ensure that all the bills are paid.
It explains why the latest filings for Solve Everything Productions cover the period of just over a year to October 31, 2023, when Hollywood was still in the grip of the actors’ strike. Filming on The Fantastic Four hadn’t begun then so Solve Everything Productions only had three employees on its books. The movie was still in the very early stages of pre-production so just $8 million (£6.6 million) had been spent on it by the end of October 2023 and it didn’t bank any reimbursement.
The next set of financial statements will show the bulk of the costs as they will cover the period up to the end of November last year by which time the majority of pre-production and all of principal photography had taken place. Not only are the costs likely to sharply increase in the financial statements but they should also show a blockbuster reimbursement.
Despite its American setting, much of ‘The Fantastic Four’ was actually filmed in the U.K. © 2025 … More
20th Century Studios and Marvel
Disney has banked well over $1.5 billion in reimbursements from the U.K. government in just the past 15 years partly contributing to President Trump’s bombshell announcement in May that a 100% tariff would be applied to movies entering the US that are produced in “foreign lands”. It was an attempt to bring film making back to the U.S. and although it has yet to be implemented, it is understood to still be on the agenda.
In May, Trump’s special adviser, the actor Jon Voight, revealed that a 120% tariff on film and television and strengthened federal and state tax incentives are being discussed at the White House. Unless Trump follows through with the introduction of tariffs to force studios back to the U.S., he will have to roll out the red carpet for them in order to compete with the U.K.
Its reimbursement is calculated on up to 80% of core expenditure so in order for a production company to get back the maximum 25.5% of the money it spends in the U.K., it needs to ensure that at least 20% of its core costs are incurred elswhere. However, there is no limit to the amount of reimbursement that the production company can receive in the U.K. and that’s not all.
In addition to claiming on direct spending in the U.K., studios can also get a pro rata reimbursement on what are known as neutral costs throughout the production such as insurance and payment to senior producers, writers and directors.
These costs can be claimed in proportion to the amount of the activity in the U.K. so, for example, if the spending there represents 22% of the total budget then 22% of the neutral costs will also qualify for reimbursement. Accordingly, the level of reimbursement can rise close to a third of the total costs which is a staggering sum.
In addition to the 10% minimum U.K. spending threshold, films must pass a points test to qualify for the reimbursement. The test is based on factors such as how many of the lead actors are from the U.K., how much filming was done in the U.K., the amount of U.K. content and how much its promotes U.K. heritage. This explains why U.K. cultural icons sometimes appear on-screen in Marvel movies despite seeming so incongruous that it can distract from the action.
A sign in the background of one of the scenes in Avengers: Infinity War shows a Scottish flag and a reference to deep fried kebabs which are an unusual local delicacy. Likewise, at one point in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, a portal opens to reveal a classic British red telephone box.
British actors such as Vanessa Kirby helped ‘The Fantastic Four’ get a tax credit © 2025 20th … More
MARVEL STUDIOS
Although The Fantastic Four was filmed in the U.K., the country is only mentioned in the movie for a matter of seconds in the grainy footage about its response to the looming threat from Galactus. With hardly any U.K. heritage or content on screen, it helps to have lead actors from the U.K. if Marvel wants The Fantastic Four to be eligible for a cost reimbursement.
The movie passes this part of the test with flying colors as not only are Kirby and Quinn British but so is Ralph Ineson, the voice and motion capture actor for Galactus. His involvement was particularly surprising because in 2023 he filed a £150,000 ($201,540) suit against the Disney subsidiary which made the Willow streaming series after he sustained permanent shoulder damage while filming at night.
Ineson was dressed as Knight Commander Ballantine while filming a battle scene with a nine-foot ogre called The Scourge when he “fell awkwardly” after slipping on fake foam gravel, according to his lawyers. They explained that due to the pressures of filming deadlines, the foam was not raked properly so it obscured the steps which Ineson tripped on.
As a result of the injuries to his right arm, Ineson’s lawyers said that he can’t now take on “physical” roles “involving fighting and horse-riding”. However, in May 2024 Disney cast him as Galactus which only involved slow-moving mocap work. One year later, Ineson reportedly accepted “substantial” compensation from Disney for the incident bringing the curtain down on the episode.
Ralph Ineson (left) was cast as Galactus after being injured on the set of ‘Willow’ ©2022 Lucasfilm … More
Lucasfilm Ltd.
Actors from the U.K. weren’t just in the lead roles, they filled the ranks of The Fantastic Four. Even the variety show host was British, played by esteemed actor Mark Gatiss who also co-created the BBC series Sherlock starring fellow Marvel star Benedict Cumberbatch. Likewise, The Fantastic Four’s colorful visual effects were created by British firm Framestore and this also counts towards the film’s eligibility for the reimbursement, as do the large number of Brits on its production team.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that any of the cast or crew were picked because of their nationality, or that they weren’t the best people for the job. However, it is a welcome benefit which Marvel wouldn’t have got if, say, they had listened to fans and cast Zac Efron as the Human Torch instead of Quinn.
The biggest beneficiary is the U.K. as the latest data from the British Film Institute (BFI) shows that in 2019 the fiscal incentives to studios generated 49,845 jobs in London and 19,085 throughout the rest of the country. That really is a happy ending.
